Count That Day Lost (Post reading activity)

In the picture we can see a young man helping his friend to climb a mountain.

The man could have continue climbing and get first to the top of the mountain but instead he decided to stop, turn around and help his friend who struggles to climb- it is a self denying deed!

The connection between the picture and the poem “Count That Day Lost” is that in the first stanza, one of the examples we are given in order to show us what a “day well spent” is- is to do at least one self denying deed.

In the picture we can see a “to do list” of someone.

We can see that this person has done nothing today, just like in the second stanza of the

poem: “You’ve nothing done that you can trace that brought the sunshine to one face-no act most small”.

This person has done nothing today in order to make someone’s day better and make a change…not even

a small act-this is an example of a lost day.

In this picture we can see one woman giving compliments to the other woman.

This nice word,this small compliment “took” one second from the first woman’s day

and on the other hand- it made the second woman’s day much better!

In the poem “Count That Day Lost” saying a “nice word” to somebody is

one of the small acts that can make a big change in somebody’s day.

We, as humans are usually ashamed to give somebody a nice word, but George Elliot’s

message is to say this one word- to make a change in someone’s day and boost his self confidence.